Medical Adjustment Counseling® (MAC®) Specialist in Tinton Falls, NJ
MAC® Psychotherapy Services
Our practice specializes in Medical Adjustment Counseling® separate from our psychotherapy services. MAC® focuses specifically upon the cognitive and behavioral changes that often accompany brain conditions and physical trauma. MAC® takes a different approach treating the patient since it is based upon the results of the neuropsychological examination which determines the focus of treatment.
NRS|LS understands adjusting to these conditions can be extremely difficult for a person. We can help.
Medical Adjustment Counseling (MAC®) was created and developed by Dr. Sica in the early 1980s as a consequence of many patients referred for “psychotherapy”, a stigma offensive to patients with medical conditions and not psychiatric. MAC® is scientifically based upon the cognitive results of the neuropsychological examination (NPE), converted into practical strategies in order for patients to understand their diagnosis and how to adjust and improve daily functioning.
This approach is different from the “psychotherapy” models that focus upon the emotional changes in behavioral functioning. The NPE in the case of MAC® serves as the “blue print” for the neurobehavioral description of the patient’s brain in the counseling and rehabilitation process.
MAC’s® METHOD
MAC® is delivered in 4 stages: validation, education, accommodation, and reintegration.
This approach is based upon an understanding through the NPE of the patient’s cognitive problems and how they will manifest in real life situations.
The first stage validation focuses upon the patient understanding their cognitive and emotional changes, plus their reaction, to their diagnosis rarely represents psychopathology. The patient is guided in coming to terms with the normalcy of their situation and not looked upon as a “psychotherapy patient”.
The second stage consists of education which is the basic element in the treatment of brain conditions. This involves understanding the NPE cognitive deficits and how they’ll affect daily functioning. This counseling between the neuropsychologist and patient is an education exchange that also includes cognitive remediation, biofeedback, and family counseling.
The third stage is accommodation, the most complex phase in achieving successful adjustment to a brain condition. Psychotherapy may not be effective, but also counterproductive. Here the focus is upon alternative strategies to compensate for the limitations and require conditioning new automatic behaviors and environmental changes.
The fourth stage is reintegration. This consists of successful behavioral change in daily functioning as a result of the prior steps in the supportive, compensation, and adjustment phases to a new set of possible limitations. This is the point at which the patient regains a sense of identity enabling them to adjust and build a new life incorporating the changes in their cognitive profile into daily functioning.
Our Providers
At NRS|LS, our doctors believe in the highest level of credentialing in order to provide maximum quality of treatment. Our NJ practice includes three-board certified neuropsychologists. In addition, our doctors are on-staff at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neuroscience Division. In addition, they are clinical assistant professors at both Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, as well as staff positions at outpatient rehabilitation centers and nursing homes. They also serve as consultation liaisons for physicians, attorneys, school systems and insurance companies in Monmouth and Ocean counties and provide public outreach.